The Bronx landlord accused of killing a tenant stormed down to the nearest police station house after the crime and ranted about how no one would help him evict the man, officials said.
“I just stabbed someone up the block,” accused killer Taha Mahran confessed to officers at the 45th Precinct, prosecutors said Thursday. “I told you many times about him. I couldn’t get help, so I stabbed him.”
The murder Wednesday at 1001 Logan Ave. in Throggs Neck occurred just a few hours after victim Zakir Khan — who was nine months behind on his rent — complained to the city that Mahran had turned off his heat and hot water.
Mahran, 51, even ripped out the home’s hot water heater and left it outside, blocking a window, sources said.
As Mahran allegedly stabbed the 44-year-old Khan outside the home, the victim desperately cried out to his 11-year-old son, who was standing on the porch.
“Eklel, help me!” Khan yelled to his son. “Call 911!”
The boy dashed into his house and locked the door, afraid that Mahran would stab his whole family, Khan’s 49-year-old brother, Subur, told The Post.
After the stabbing, a blood-soaked Mahran walked a couple of blocks to the 45th Precinct station, where he allegedly confessed to the cop at the front desk.
Later, as he was being questioned, Mahran told detectives he feared Khan was trying to use tricks to take the house from him and that he “was only going to scare” Khan, prosecutors said Thursday at Mahran’s arraignment.
“He was cursing and screaming. He’s a scumbag,” said the landlord, who also told officers he had dumped his knife in a sewer.
Mahran also griped that the courts were not helping him evict Khan because the tenant is friendly with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, police sources said. Diaz did not return a request for comment.
A pal of Mahran said Khan turned the home into a dump.
“He wrecked the house,” the friend, who did not want to give his name, said of Khan. “Look, he piles up the garbage. No one else will rent.”
Khan’s brother, Subur, called Zakir “a good dad, a good husband . . . We still now don’t believe it.”
Additional reporting by Daniel Prendergast